Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Derek

“Gwen!” I shout. I catch her just as she blacks out and falls to the floor.

I lay her on her back and Margaret is there in a heartbeat.

“What happened?” asks Jasper.

“What do you think happened?” I say. “After everything she’s been through today, plus literally losing her mind, I’m surprised she didn’t crash earlier.”

“You think she just passed out?” says Anya. “I don’t see her as the fainting type. What do you think Margaret?”

“I agree. She hasn’t fainted. She separated from her consciousness. I could sense her mind before she fell. She was in a great deal of pain. She was nauseous, dizzy and had a devil of a migraine brewing. I imagine she just overloaded her body. I can also sense that she’s used a great deal of magic today. More than any normal Elemental should be able to use in one day,” Margaret pierces Jasper with a withering glare. “What hell did you put this poor girl through today, Jasper? What did you do?”

“Me?!” he shouts, a little outraged. “I didn’t do anything. I set up a simple training exercise and one of my trainees took it too far.”

“Are you sure that’s all it was, Jasper? Would you like to see everything he’s omitted, Mags?” I place my finger to her temple and share my memories of today. The fighting with Jaspers’ trainees, all the magic she did to defend herself. I don’t have to be in her mind to sense Mags’s fury.

“What gave you the right?” she snarls at Jasper. She keeps her amazement at the magic that Gwen performed in the memory on the back burner. Right now she is all Healers Rage. We made that term up just for Mags. She’s a wonderful old woman (she’s nearly 1500) but when it comes to her patients she can fight as fiercely as anyone I know, she’s very protective of anyone who comes into her care.

“It was just a simple exercise, Mags. One we’ve done a million times before, but I guess they took it too far. They heard the rumours going around about her power and decided to do something that got way out of hand. I’ve already torn Howard a new one, but, believe me Mags, if I knew what they were planning I would have put a stop to it,” he appears sincere enough that Mags lets him off the hook in favour of paying closer attention to Gwen. Something I’m immensely grateful for because I’ve never seen her look so vulnerable and it’s incredibly unsettling.

“We should move her,” says Anya.

“Yes, we need to get her somewhere comfortable,” replies Mags. “We can’t take her to the infirmary. It’s full of trainees suffering from serious burns. It is not peaceful or comfortable in there right now. Perhaps we should return her to her own apartment.”

“We can’t, she’s unconscious, we won’t be able to use the key in her palm,” supplies Anya.

“My apartment then,” I say. “She’s been there before. She shouldn’t be disoriented when she wakes and the three of us can stay with her, just in case.”

“You got it,” says Oliver.

“Agreed,” pipes in Anya.

“It’s settled then. She will be fine for you to carry, Derek,” Mags says to me. “Just don’t drop her. Come and find me when she wakes up.”

“How long will she be out?” I ask.

“I don’t know. She could wake up in the next few minutes or the next few days. She’ll wake up once she’s recuperated.”

I nod and bend to pick Gwen up off the floor, her head rolling to the side and coming to rest against my chest.

“Let’s go,” says Anya.

We go the back ways, trying to limit the amount of people who see Gwen passed out. There are enough rumours going around about her without people speculating about what might have happened. Fortunately the back corridors are also a faster way to get to the apartment areas. We get to my place within a few minutes and open the doors.

“Should we put her on the couch or in the bed?” asks Oliver.

“The bed will be much more comfortable,” says Anya.

“The bed it is,” I say, moving toward my bedroom.

I lay her down in the centre of the bed, pull her hair back from her face and pull the sheet up to cover her.

“So, what do we do now?”

“I guess we just hang out for a while, Olly,” says Anya. “Cool place by the way, my apartment is underwater.”

“Mine’s an ice cave,” says Oliver.

“You should see Gwen’s,” I reply. “It’s like stepping into a flower field. Her apartment is literally built inside a giant yellow rose.”

“No way!” say Anya. “That’s amazing. When she wakes up she’s totally giving me a tour.”

“How did you guys meet anyway?” asks Oliver.

“I’m her Guardian. Her powers activated last month. She was in Brisbane, Australia and I was in London. I felt her from the other side of the world. She literally knocked me out of bed.”

“Wow. No wonder people are having kittens.”

“She’s amazing. You should have seen her fight this morning,” says Anya. “Show him.”

So I do. I place my fingers against his temple and transfer my memories to him. While I put my other hand against Anya’s temple and show them both the day her powers activated. I get the expected gasps of surprise and shocked awe. I can’t blame them; I was much more shocked than that. We talk for ages. They are wildly curious about her.

“Jeez, it’s been four hours and she still hasn’t even so much as twitched,” says Anya. “Maybe we should go get Mags?”

I look at the clock on my wall. It reads 5:00pm. It’s actually been six hours but I’ll let Anya believe it’s only four.

“Let her be, after a day like today she probably just needs to pass out for a while,” I say.

“I think Olly has the right idea.” We both look to Oliver who fell asleep about an hour ago. He’s curled up on the bottom of the bed.

“So,” continues Anya. “When exactly did you realise you wanted to be much more than Gwen’s Guardian?” She has an amused smile plastered across her face.

“How long have you been waiting to ambush me with that?” I respond stalling for time.

“All day, it’s been painfully obvious. Probably to everyone, I’m just the only one brave enough to bring it up. Does she know?”

“There’s nothing to know,” I say stubbornly. She just rolls her eyes at me.

“Don’t play games, Derek. I’m not an idiot and I know you a lot better than that.”

It’s true. She was the first person I met when Hank bought me here. We trained together for two years and then she continued training with Jasper (she mastered her water abilities years ago) and I became a Guardian. She might be the closest I have to family these days.

“Fine, I’ll admit it.”

“Admit what exactly, be specific Loverboy,” she teases.

“Fiiiiiine,” I groan. “I’ve known for a bit now. It just sort of built up.”

“Built up?”

“Look at her Anya, how could it not?”

“So you’re telling me that, after seeing her for the first time and watching her beat down three massive, armed and stabby guys, you thought ‘Yup, I like this one.’”

“You saw the memory, complete with my thoughts. That’s kind of inevitable when you do a memory share, it’s all from your own point of view.”

“You didn’t answer my second question.”

“What was that?”

“Does she know?”

“She knows. Maybe not everything, but she knows,” I say. She has a grin from ear to ear. “Wipe that smirk off your face.” She just laughs at me.

“I can’t, it’s good to see! You haven’t so much as flirted with anyone since Claire. It’s nice to see you coming back out of that shell.”

I’m about to say something sarcastic when I feel Gwen move. We watch as her arms twitch and then her back bows off the bed and she starts gasping. It’s like she can’t breathe. We kick Oliver awake and go to her side. Oliver is out the door immediately, running to find Mags. Anya looks for her pulse and tries to talk to her. I place my hands on either side of her head and try to help her get some air. Like CPR just without breathing into her mouth. She’s still breathing, thank Christ, but she’s having a lot of trouble.

“Is she asthmatic?!” yells Anya. “Is it even possible to have an asthma attack while you’re unconscious? Is it even possible for one of us to have asthma?”

“She isn’t asthmatic. It looks a bit like a panic attack. She’s unconscious, how the hell can this be happening while she’s unconscious?!”

It feels like an eternity but we finally hear footsteps in the living room and Mags bursts in. She climbs onto the bed placing one hand on Gwen’s forehead and the other on her chest and closing her eyes to concentrate. I feel like a decade passes before Mags’s opens her eyes and turns to us.

“I don’t know what’s happening. This isn’t physical or an illness. This is just something happening in her mind. I can try and ease her breathing but the rest she’s just going to have to battle through herself.”

“How did this happen, Mags?” asks Anya.

“Most likely it’s something do with her power. She expended so much energy today and all of it was in extremely high stress situations. Her body may just be drained,” she explains. “Alternatively, it’s more of a mental thing interacting with her magic. Something she’s thinking about or something that she’s heard while she’s been here.”

“She’s been unconscious,” says Oliver. “She can’t hear anything.”

“That’s not true at all,” says Mags as she finishes working on Gwen. Her breathing has eased and she is left panting, trying to catch her breath. “The more power someone has the more active their mind tends to be. It’s not something we can explain but it is something that has been noticed throughout time. The most powerful of us tend to just constantly be present. She’s probably been fully awake in there, her body just hasn’t been responding.”

“So, what do we do now?” asks Oliver.

“We reduce the amount of things that could be affecting her here. Oliver and Anya, maybe the two of you should just leave Derek to keep an eye on her.”

“Sure, we can do that,” says Anya. She has that smirk on her face again.

“She’s hot,” Anya stifles a laugh as Mags continues. “So try and keep this place cool and get a damp cloth. Make sure to change it over every twenty minutes or so, just until her temperature goes down a bit,” says Mags.

“Not a problem.”

“Good. Okay, everyone out.”

I watch as everyone leaves my apartment and shoot a glare at Anya as she winks at me and shuts the door. I get a cloth, a bowl of water and some ice from the kitchen and head back. Her breathing is almost back to normal again but, Mags was right, she’s burning up. I sit cross-legged next to her on the bed and wet the cloth. It’s still so weird seeing her so vulnerable. She’s been a firecracker since day one. I just hope she wakes up soon.